Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008

I revisted the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this past weekend and had the opportunity to see the Vanity Fair show I refered to in my previous post. AWESOME! Honestly, this was my favorite exhibit of any show I can remember in recent history. There are some permanent collections at the Met that I love, but this show was just the best all around photo exhibit I’ve seen. Of course, in my mind, Annie Leibovitz’s work dominated the more recent era. (You can read about her here on Wikipedia). Most of these shots encompassed film celebrities, however, there were also some ones that I didn’t expect. There’s a shot of Bush and his advisers in the Oval Office ca. the invasion of Iraq that looks eerily comfortable but has the undertone of “We just went to war.” There’s also a shot that hit me, that I think was hers, of Ronald and Nancy Reagan dancing. It was just this very poignant and tender moment.

In the earlier photos, there’s a shot of Monet months before his death… DH Lawrence, Picasso, Gloria Swanson, Hugh Grant. I know I’m not hitting on the best, because all the photos were the best and I just can’t recall them all.